Just picked up two nucs on 5/5/10. They look okay when I picked them up, but I saw on today’s inspection that one has chalkbrood. :shock: Little white and grey mummies littered the screened bottom board. :'(

First time I’ve had to deal with this, but I understand that I need to just give them syrup, time and ventilation. Any other recommendations for a Spring nuc?

Is this something that I should be upset about, having just picked this nuc up, or is it just one of those things?

Somtimes it was just a cold snap and chilled brood that sets off chalkbrood. Sometimes its genetics. Sometimes its because the nuc drifted too much after making it up leaving it short of bees to keep the brood warm or clean out infested brood.

there was a study about chalkbrood and temp. maybe you can google it and find it. don't remember how good a study it was or even much about it, except that it recommended higher temps for defeating chalkbrood.

it's something i have dealt with here, and most of the time it is self-limiting. sometimes it's not........

Logged

.....The greatest changes occur in their country without their cooperation. They are not even aware of precisely what has taken place. They suspect it; they have heard of the event by chance. More than that, they are unconcerned with the fortunes of their village, the safety of their streets, the fate of their church and its vestry. They think that such things have nothing to do with them, that they belong to a powerful stranger called “the government.” They enjoy these goods as tenants, without a sense of ownership, and never give a thought to how they might be improved.....

Same thing happened to me last year. I got exited. I then found it in all my hives and figured I spread it around with my hive tool. I probably was to blame inspecting my bees when to cool and windy like a kid in a candy store. Have not seen it this year, yet!

Logged

The moment a person forms a theory, his imagination sees in every object only the traits which favor that theory

Chalkbrood is normally a stress disease. That stress can be bad temps, high humidity, weak genetics, poor population, or otherwise.Relieve the stress and the contagious elements of sick brood frames and the disease will subside.---------------------------------I'm not convinced on the theory of "brood fever".

If there is failed brood in the hive, the colony is going to compensate by trying to produce more larvae to make up for the sick. The larger quantity of brood itself can induce a higher temp in the hive.

I can argue just as well that if I believe C/B to be an dampness issue, the bees maybe naturally more active to fan more moisture out of the hive. That instinct can raise the hive temperature just as well.

I could also argue that if there are sick larvae to be removed, there maybe less bees to regulate hive temp, as they act as mortuary bees.

I mean if this is really the answer, why don't we just put heating pads under chalkbrood hives until they get well?

My worse problem with this study is that it works with one frame of bees. This is far from any normal construction of a colony. A two frame observation hive has no where near the thermal dynamics of a 8 or 10 frame colony. ------------------------------------------------

Logged

There is nothing new under the sun. Only your perspective changes to see it anew.

>I mean if this is really the answer, why don't we just put heating pads under chalkbrood hives until they get well?

That might actually work very well...

>My worse problem with this study is that it works with one frame of bees. This is far from any normal construction of a colony. a two frame observation hive has no where near the thermal dynamics of a 8 or 10 frame colony.

Chalkbrood is normally a stress disease. That stress can be bad temps, high humidity, weak genetics, poor population, or otherwise.Relieve the stress and the contagious elements of sick brood frames and the disease will subside.---------------------------------I'm not convinced on the theory of "brood fever".

.------------------------------------------------

Explaining helps nothing.

I have figted my chalkbrood away from my yard. It was bad 15 years and then I tired on it.

I byed new queens from different sources to my yard. I want to find resistant genes to my genepool and then I reared lots of queens and start to select. Every queen which showed a tendency

Every queen which showed chalkbrood I cast away. First year I must kill 50% of my new queens. One mother hive had 80% diease daugters. I reared them about 30 queens.

Another had 20% disease daughters.

With absolute selecting I got ridd of disease in 3 years. After that I have killed 1-2 queen in spring when they show tencendy to the disease. I have exrta nucs and it is the method.

Last summer I bought an inseminated queen for rearing but this spring it showed shalbrood. So it is out of question.

In my climate chilly weathers are the main reason to the disease burst. If weathers are rainy for 2 weeks, chalkbrood appears in hives. It means that bees are not able to keep all brood warm enough..It has been reported that varroa has made the chalkbrood worse.